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Why you shouldn’t miss Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

My uncle bought me Final Fantasy XII for my birthday in 2006. At 10 years old, the many combat mechanics and branching storylines were confusing. Despite that, I remained enamored with the game’s vibrancy: I especially recall marveling at the hair and clothes flying in the desert wind as well as the blue sparks flashing from the swords and jingle shield. To this day, it remains my favorite Final Fantasy.

The game was originally released as a PlayStation 2 exclusive, but over the past few years a remake called, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC with performance improvements, deeper work customization, and more quality of life changes. More recently, Square Enix released the remake on PlayStation Now. If you haven’t experienced Final Fantasy XII, here’s why you should grab your chance as soon as possible.

Cast

Like most installments in Square Enix’s beloved series, Final Fantasy XII chronicles the lives of heroes against a larger force of villains. While the other entries use moody, intermittent caricatures to push their plot forward (yes, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite heroes, Cloud and Squall), Final Fantasy XII is not about individual motives but more about the sum of its parts.

The street hedgehogs Vaan and Penelo call the poor slums of Rabanastre home. While Penelo tries to find the silver in their situation, Vaan looks up into the sky with dreams of owning a spaceship and living in freedom. After many chance encounters with shady folk, the two young people are transported into a world of political intrigues and secret coups. Even so, they learn to find companions in others: Ashe, an abandoned princess, Basch, an exiled soldier, and Balthier and Fran, bounty hunters.

Despite their odd mix, each member of Final Fantasy XII’s main cast shares common insecurities – cowardice, loneliness, unresolved grief, and self-doubt. Vaan and his band of outcasts remain one of the greatest characters in Final Fantasy lore because they’re so easy to root. Despite struggling with personal shortcomings, they constantly discover ways to defy fate.

World

Like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII’s story takes place in the Kingdom of Ivalice. Much of the continent is filled with the unexplored ruins of ancient dynasties. But when your party doesn’t go through every fortress like a maze tested throughout the vast landscape, you’re navigating breathtaking cities and towns. As Vaan, you start in the messy city of Rabanastre, home to various districts including markets and palaces. But outside of opening hours, players explore larger areas with increasingly exotic fauna including waterways with flaming stallions, badlands with roaming tyrannosaurs and Misty forests with green Chocobos.

Each setting in Final Fantasy XII is aesthetically unique and full of secrets. Some areas, like the Skycity of Bhujerba, can only be reached by airship; that’s as simple as buying a one-way ticket. Other locations must be explored on foot, but the centers are small-scale and (in some cases) linear, meaning that getting around is straightforward. Moreover, Ivalice has many different ethnic groups. For example, Fran, with rabbit-like ears and a height of 7 meters, is a Viera from Eruyt Village. Other races like the Nu Mou – two-legged canines – were religious nomads. Despite being a cross-cultural place, Ivalice’s racial tensions make integration increasingly difficult. To see this negativity reflected in the way strangers react to Fran (and the rest of your human group even associate with her), makes the game world organic and alive motion.

Combat system

Fans of traditional and modern Square Enix RPGs will find that Final Fantasy XII presents a healthy mix of turn-based and real-time combat: ATB (or cooldown) meters ) from older games back, adding urgency to input attacks and lateral positioning. And a dynamic camera with real-time actions makes battles intuitive and streamlined.

Instead of unlocking nodes on the static skill tree, the progression in Final Fantasy XII is a role-playing minigame. Upgrades are logged through a work permit – space on an extensive checkered board to unlock ultimatums, weapon and armor sets, and stat boosts. These permits correlate with assigned jobs (or classes). Each job has its own board, but several may share licenses that, when purchased, will overlap. For example, my Balthier is a White Mage and Machinist. Both job boards have a “quick” license that reduces cooldowns. By purchasing a responsive button on the White Mage board, I can access adjacent abilities on the Machinist board.

Players can do a variety of job combinations to stack skills and take down the game’s most fearsome bosses. With the added benefit of “gambits” – a customizable command system that programs characters to perform important actions like healing low HP teammates or attacking specified targets – Battles become comfortably automated, eliminating the need for annoying micromanagement.


My favorite RPGs have always been focused on what matters most: a character-driven story with vibrant locations and fun, engaging gameplay. In 2006, Final Fantasy XII met those standards, and it continues to be one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences. Age of the Zodiac expands on all the features that made the original so great. And now that it’s going to be available to every console player in a few weeks (PlayStation Now accessibility means PS5 owners can finally join in!), I couldn’t help but be excited to explore the world. its again. If you love intuitive gameplay and the age-old “Final Fantasy formula” done right – an eccentric cast of related characters, an epic scale adventure and boss battles big – then Final Fantasy XII is for you!


If you are also excited for the remaster, check out our video details Four things you need to know about the game in preparation for its re-release.

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